The politician is a curious oddity indeed

It never ceases to amaze, the odd behavior of today’s politician, or the ridiculous justifications they offer, and expect us to accept, for their oddities.

In many households it can be seen that finances are regulated via an “envelope system.” That is, there exists a series of envelopes each marked with an intended purpose for budgeting. One maybe marked “mortgage” or “rent.” Others may be marked “gas”, “electric”, “cable television”, and even perhaps “health insurance.”

Each pay period a calculated percentage of household income is apportioned into the various envelopes in order to make sure the money is there to cover the bills. It’s a very simple and effective method of controlling home finances.

Of course, with today’s advanced technologies, the envelope system now looks a little different. It may look more like an Excel spreadsheet, but the intended purpose and the goals achieved are the same.

Our federal government also has a sort of “envelope system” into which our tax dollars are distributed. Their envelopes are marked a bit differently though, they have names like “national defense”, “social security”, “Medicare”; the list goes on ad infinitum.

Now, in spite of an outpouring of public resistance, they’ve added another envelope to the system. Let’s call it “health care for all.”

This new “health care for all” envelope is structured to fund a six year entitlement with ten years of taxes which will begin now, but will not reap any substantial benefits until, according to some reports, 2014.

Now keep in mind that the federal government has envelopes of differing sizes. One of the bigger envelopes is titled “general fund” and serves to fund many and varied functions too numerous to list here.

Years ago the politicians in Washington saw that the “social security” envelope was being stressed to its limits by an excess amount of cash. They decided that it would be better if the “social security” envelope, or at least its contents, were moved to the bigger “general fund” envelope. The social security set asides were then used for all sorts of other purposes.

Now, because of the infinite wisdom of politicians in Washington, we see that the social security system is in the proverbial red and set to fail if something isn’t done (means tax increases or benefit reductions to you and me).

The question now is, “will the new tax hikes be re-apportioned, as were the social security taxes, when the ‘health care for all’ envelope shows signs of stress from an abundance of cash before they can be used for their intended purpose?”

Perhaps these new taxes will go to buy Speaker Pelosi a new jet or, at the very least, serve to expand her office’s budget for alcohol.

It will be interesting to see how all this plays out, but one thing is certain; today’s politician is an oddity indeed.

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Stanley Shimkus is a lifelong resident of southeastern Michigan and is a 34 year member of the United Auto Workers Union. He has strongly held Christian beliefs and is a member of the Christian Motorcyclists Association. His Christian worldview instructs his conservative ideology which puts him at
odds with unions and liberalism. Contact Stan at harleyman10@hotmail.com.